Day 4 Channel Islands & France

At 7am the crew aboard Blue Fin stirred and by 7.30am Time Flies had departed to assess the conditions beyond the Isle of Wight. Despite some residual chop from the previous blustery days the conditions were favourable for a passage to Cherbourg – the sun was out and there was a northerly breeze to see us all on our way south.

The 10-knot boats were first to depart in the morning sunshine, these were Trader 42 Kukup Lady, Grand Banks 42 Endura and Mainship Cartovi. By 11am the last fast boat was exiting Portsmouth Harbour, closely followed by MBM control boat Blue Fin. On board were cruise leader Neale Byart, MBM editor Carl Richardson and publisher Steve Kendall.

By 3pm FST boats were beginning to arrive in Cherbourg and one by one they were fuelled and directed to berths by the team. The team also welcomed an extra pair of hands in the shape of MBM’s man from Guernsey, Richard Poat.

Photo – Fairline Phantom 43 In Motion nearing Cherbourg

Later on at the skippers’ briefing, Neale informed everyone about plans for tomorrow. Although we are now behind schedule the plan is to head for St Helier Marina where MBM has organised a group dinner at St Helier Yacht Club. Tomorrow’s weather looks similar to today’s with rain forecast. It will
also need to be an early start tomorrow, in order to take advantage of
the morning tide in the Alderney Race. Neale will re-examine the weather again in the morning for passage to Jersey and a decision will be made. The alarm aboard control boat Blue Fin is set for 4am FST (that’s 0300 BST!) Time Flies will depart at 4.30am FST to assess the conditions in the Race and the first boats are due to depart at 6am FST.

Photo – Spectacular. The Queen Mary 2 docked at Cherbourg

In other news, there was a birthday among the fleet today. Hannah of Atlantic 42 Amethyst was celebrating her 25th. And finally, congratulations to all those boats who made their first Channel crossing today.

Main Photo – Trader 42 Kukup Lady exits the Solent off Sandown to cross the channel for the very first time

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